An administration in disarray

New York City: The implosion of the Aquino administration in the midterm is not surprising since it started on the wrong foot. No transition from the previous to repositioning itself as the cleanest. Nothing wrong with that because people wanted a real tuwid na daan and kung walang korap, walang mahirap. Enough with lying, cheating and stealing and so we hoped.

Aquino received a government weakened by the various attacks against it from the time the mandate was questioned. It also received an economy that withstood the ravages of Asian crisis and internal cohesion. We saw during the Arroyo administration the separation of politics and economics. The economy was stable. The first 100 days shaped things to come. Hurried cases were filed against GMA, and impeachment seeds were sowed and the first year budget under Aquino was passed in record time. There was also the total slowdown on government operations and infrastructure development because Aquino wanted all contracts reviewed and made above board. Nothing wrong with that, so long as there is sunshine in the process and we get our money’s worth. But, again, the people await final decisions to get things moving. Funny, they decided to slow down things at the start only for us to learn that they have been putting together some lump sum as its carrot and stick.

Then by Aquino’s third SONA it unraveled beyond the our wildest expectations. From the Customs issues, it went to PDAF, DAP, Malampaya. It went to the heart of every administration: executive decisions, monies and favors. It went further to lies and more lies, cover up and storylines manufactured overnight even if the sum total is not coherent.

The Jenny Napoleses and PDAF are not new. They have been there since the time of Abad and Aquino as congressmen and Aquino and Drilon as senators. Trace the link and you will see the originators of the scheme and the men behind it. Who took care of Jenny? The old hands of a grand party who seems to have a hard time denying, obscuring and misdirecting.

The presidential spokesman said that anti-porks are involved in what he calls as DOM but look at the chronology and tell us who is involved in DOMs? When you select COA audits by percentage of coverage, by object and by political affiliations, aren’t you involved in denial? When you lumped the so-called opposition, were you not engaged in obscuring?

And when you explain DAP as an economic stimulus package due to the wrong policies this administration embraced at the start, are you not misdirecting things?

When processes and procedures are compromised and SAROs and NCAs missing, what kind of governance do we have? A systems audit would give taxpayers a bird’s eye view of the mess in disbursing and implementation. We have not even touched the revenue side with BOC and BIR.

The question asked by Sen. Ralph Recto is telling. In three and a half years of a six-year term, the Aquino administration has dispensed hard-earned taxpayers money in wild abandon. Worst, there is no accountability and transparency. Imagine the Malampaya fund as a humongous pork for the president. Imagine P130 billion unaccounted for from the P170-billion revenues since 2000. Can you just imagine the kind of money we are talking here?

And who keeps twisting the truth Mr. Lacierda? Pray tell me? So when you blame the previous, be sure your team did not increase any allocation in the past three and a half years. Look at the increase in PDAF. Look at the amount used by this administration from Malampaya. Look at the ingenuity of Abad in transferring funds from the Executive to the Legislative with the money used for new items of expenditure not found in the GAA.

The self-righteousness of this administration is legendary. But look who shares the stage now. The hypocrisy of this administration is unparallel and look who dishes out mud.

The PH state is in a free fall. We should rage, rage, rage against the dying of the light.

6 Comments

This underscore the observation of many that we have a flawed governmental presidential system.There is failure of check and balances between the 3 co-equal branches of government with basically the Executive holding the balance of power and able to bribe the legislative with its colossal discretionary fund. It is about time to have a closer look for a structural change to our present system of government into a parliamentary/federal form of governance. In it the executive and the legislative is streamlined into one. What a lot of savings will it be. All Ministerial Heads of the Executive who runs the government are also member of the parliament, and they are always held to account by the Opposition who will also have corresponding Shadow Ministerial Heads. Corruption we are witnessing now in our present system will be stopped. Change of Prime Minister can always be done by a vote of no confidence by the Parliament or by his/her party caucus. Even the leader of the Opposition( if he is not doing his role to account the government) is easily replaced by his/her party caucus. So in this setting both party members on both sides of the parliament are on their toes always.

So what remedy is there? Military takeover to give way for installation of Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago who can interpret the Constitution and has been fighting corruption all her life? We need to engage because international Filipino communities are massive to get rid of this Administration before the darkness fall.